Thursday, June 25, 2009

Cheddar Cheese Straws (Mmm, baby!)

I'm not sure why more of you (or any of you, for that matter) haven't called me up to see when would be a good time to stop by and kiss my feet. That's certainly what I would do if you told me about how amazing Smitten Kitchen's Cheese Straws are.

I mentioned them a few times on Twitter. Oh, you don't use Twitter? Well, couldn't you hear me moaning and grunting and calling out their name as I ate all the little broken pieces and then rejoiced when another one broke in the transfer from the cooling rack to the measuring cup? That should have clued you in for sure.

(Nice photo, huh? Kinda makes me think Mr. Basil Plant there will have to play a small role in the next batch -- maybe with Ms. Mozzerella?)

In all seriousness, you should get out the few simple ingredients and spend just a few minutes whipping these up so you can enjoy them as soon as possible. Go ahead and make all the changes you want! Use gorgonzola and parmesan (a commenter on smittenkitchen.com did), or add all kinds of dried herbs and spices! (Wait a sec... curried cheese straws?! Oh, yes!) And you can use just about whatever milky thing you want in place of the half-and-half. I used low fat soy milk. I bet you could even use water. I'm sure whatever reasonable thing you dream up will be delicious.

On a related note, I made my sweet potato cookies again (look over there to the right for the recipe). I apologize if you tried making them in the past and figured out there was no salt in the list of ingredients but never bothered to ask me about it. The salt is there now. I've eaten one so far, and I'm very much looking forward to this evening when I can plop on the couch with my knitting and some tea or chocolate milk and eat several more.

I'm also looking forward to all the praise and back-patting I'm going to get from the boys (Dan and our friend Gavin who's staying with us until he goes back east for his bride). They are in for some kinda treat at the dinner table tonight!